Unit information: Translating in a Professional Context in 2013/14

Unit name	Translating in a Professional Context
Unit code	MODL30010
Credit points	20
Level of study	H/6
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12)
Unit director	Dr. Mason
Open unit status	Not open
Pre-requisites	none
Co-requisites	none
School/department	School of Modern Languages
Faculty	Faculty of Arts

Description including Unit Aims

This unit will introduce final-year students to the different contexts in which professional translation takes place and the competences identified in the National Occupational Standards in Translation. Students will consider translation as both process and product and apply their knowledge by reflecting critically on their own translation practice in the co-requisite language unit(s) they are following concurrently. The unit will focus on three themes: i) the professional context(s) of translators; ii) the standards of competences expected of professional translators; iii) criteria for the evaluation of translation - exploring industry norms, alternative approaches and strategies and examining tricky concepts like equivalence.

Aims:

• To introduce students to a significant body of knowledge of a complexity appropriate to final year level. The content matter will normally include one or more of the following: literature; social, cultural or political history; linguistics; cultural studies; film, television or other media.

• To facilitate students’ engagement with a body of literature, including secondary literature, texts, including in non-print media, primary sources and ideas as a basis for their own analysis and development. Normally many or most of these sources will be in a language other than English and will enhance the development of their linguistic skills.

• To develop further skills of synthesis, analysis and independent research, building on the skills acquired in units at level I.

• To equip students with the skills to undertake postgraduate study in a relevant field.

Intended Learning Outcomes

Successful students will demonstrate that they can reflect critically on the processes by which they and other students have undertaken and evaluated translation tasks; that they can articulate, both orally and in writing, theoretical positions about translation; and that they are familiar with the terminology and methodology of translation in English and in at least one modern foreign language.

Teaching Information

Two seminar hours per week across one teaching block (22 contact hours).

Assessment Information

essay 50%, presentation 15% and translation 35%

Reading and References

• Mona Baker In Other Words (Routledge: 1992)

• Jeremy Munday, Introducing Translation Studies: Theories and Applications (Revised edition, Routledge, 2008)

• Anthony Pym, Exploring Translation Theories (Routledge, Taylor and Francis Group: 2010)

• Lawrence Venuti, The Translation Studies Reader (Routledge: 2000)